


Night Terrors

by expelled_sleep_demon



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Violence, F/M, Immortality, M/M, Romance, Telekinesis, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-24 18:29:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20912144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/expelled_sleep_demon/pseuds/expelled_sleep_demon
Summary: An immortal Jason Todd struggles to find what is missing in his life. As he navigates his way through a new world, completely unknown to him, he struggles to hold on to his humanity and his newfound love.





	1. Goodnight Sweet Prince

Beneath the tragic affectation of tranquility in the manor, silence and sin strangle even the tortured portraits on those perfect walls. The anguish of our times long forgotten, our non-perishable existences are only fragile in our grips, shattering before our feet every instance we attempt to remember. I was a boy. I was so full of youthful dreams and desires, so full of untapped anger, so much potential. I know that my youth was my undoing but I deserve to be loved, desired, adored, undone, I deserved to die. It was my human right to die. After all, from the very moment that I arrived at the manor I was already fated to die.

I cannot recall how old I was, but by the looks of my own face immortalized on canvas that very year, I was about sixteen when my mortal life ended. I stole something from him, something small, whatever it was I could not remember. What I do remember is his smile, so gentle, so fatherly. I rubbed my eyes in the dark and he took hold of my arm. I had no fears then. I only wanted to get away, but something in him made me want to stay, to follow him to wherever his carriage may go. That I did.

For a long while it was lost to me what he was but with him I had a family. With him I had a

father. It wasn't too long after I came to live in his care my memories began to leave me. Time itself escaped me and I decided that I had to leave. I had to retrieve my memories before they'd all gone from me. I'd forgotten my nature, I'd forgotten the reason for my ferocious ways, and why I'd grown to be that way. His love made me fragile. Too fragile. I only remember being near death in his arms. I remember his tears, his blood, the taste of his blood, the smell of it, the color staining my lips, my shirt. I hungered for it. I had never once tasted the blood of man or even longed for it, before his. His was not the blood of man, but the blood of a monster. Once I awakened from my slumber, upon realization of what I'd done I fled into the bowels of the castle through the trapdoors and corridors of dungeon-like halls. For years I tortured myself until the years melted away like days. Perhaps they were days. The only thing more powerful than my anguish was my thirst for blood.

I dragged myself from the depths of despair longing for blood, longing for release. That night, I took a victim. I killed a man. I only wished to taste his blood but I couldn't stop myself. I drank from him until he expired. I shuddered at the expulsion of his mortal life force. It was a feeling like no other. His body lay in the alley drained of all fluid and life and I sat across from him head tilted back, mouth agape, hands at my side. I couldn't move. He came to retrieve me. Bruce. He stretched out his hand and I wanted to fight it, but I let him take me home to the manor. I drank blood from a wine glass. I was so terribly thirsty. I was a slave to my thirst and my thirst alone. "Jason, please."

"I cannot remember who I am! I did not lust for blood before you! What have you done to me, have you made a beast of me? A demon?" I couldn't resist licking the blood from my stained lips. The spirit of death carried the sweet fragrance of a woman. I wished to heaven itself that I could be allowed to cry for my sins.

He remained calm, "You may know well… I am not of mortal flesh and blood. I possess certain… Gifts. You were near death and I could not bear to lose my son. I could not bear your loss, so I did what I felt was right. I bestowed upon you the gift of immortality. As long as you were a mere mortal I could only keep you alive inside the walls of the manor-."

"You lie," I screamed. He did not move. I could not cry. I wished I could but the feeling escaped  
me. "Why can't I-."

"When you were a mortal here, I used my gifts to remove some of your memories. As a  
consequence of my actions you've forgotten your humanity-."

"This is no gift! Behind these walls, these hellish walls you've trapped me here. You've made a  
mockery of me, of my sanity. You do not love me-." His glass shattered in his hand. His blood called to me and I froze.

"I have always loved you! If I had not loved you would I have spent years giving you

everything you could have ever dreamed of! Hundreds of years keeping you young and happy behind these walls! Have you ever been unwell in my care? Had you stayed I would not have had to turn you! Had you stayed you would have been happy forever!" He left me at the table and despite my pride and fury I fell prey to my desire for blood and I licked the remains of the blood of his hands off of the table like an animal. This was my birth. I longed for death.

Time melts into you when it ceases to exist. It burns through your veins, makes you long for it, and still it means absolutely nothing. Years ceased and my anger subsided into apathy. Bruce taught me how to live in my condition. He showed me some of the rooms hidden in the manor that I never knew existed. I slept quite comfortably in a coffin, it gave me the peace that I longed for in the death I could not have. I must remain in the shadows, avoiding the burn of sunlight. The small things like garlic, the loss of my human reflection, and then the whole thing with wooden stakes. One thing that he said that never truly sat with me was the fact that he said there are other things that can quench the thirst for blood, things that are not blood. I didn’t understand. I feared none of those things. I only feared that I would never feel anything, that I would just be a vessel for hunger.

My brother came to visit. Bruce’s son, but my older brother all the same. “Jason?” I sat perched on the arm of the sectional. “It’s been a hundred years, how are you?”

“One… One-hundred?” He frowned.

"All understandings of time will return to you. I've come to tell you that I've found love," he smiled. I fell back onto the couch and sank in comfortably. He continued to speak of a woman made of fire and sunlight, and I grew bored of his tales.

“What became of Barbara? I was fond of her,” I whispered. I wondered if he had even heard me. He seemed so joyful. I closed my eyes waiting for a response.

“Barbara will always find rest in my heart. My dearest friend,” Richard smiled, “You do not believe me?” I propped up on my elbow to look at him. His face warm in color almost as if he were mortal again.

“I do not understand you. Who is this sun woman?”

“I met her in France, she comes and goes as she pleases. She is like you and I, but something so very different. She has been alive much longer than you and I,” he beamed, not really answering my question. I lay back into the couch wondering how he could find joy, passion, and even love in his immortality. I imagined it was delusion. I grew tired of his tales and I closed my eyes.

“Something troubles you,” he asked and I opened my eyes.

“What?”

“What troubles you?” With a twitch of his finger he made my hair stand up. I glared at him and smoothed my hair back into place. “Tell me what’s bothering you. You know that I can feel your anguish.” He smiled at me. Richard always looked at me with fondness, as if he found true joy in my presence.

“How long have you been this way? Immortal?” He looked at me and furrowed his brows.

“About twenty years before you came, one-hundred and fifty years I believe. If you’re asking me how long you’ve been immortal, it’s only been about sixty or so years,” he looked a little tired at the thought, “Something much more troubling lingers on your mind… Is it the new child?”

“You’ve met him?” I sat up on the couch.

“I have… He sleeps now. What is his name?”

“Timothy. Another mortal for Bruce to toy with.”

“No. You will see.” His hat floated over to rest on his head. “He adores all his children but his immortality allows him the gift of manipulation. He’s hollowed you out, just as he’s done me, it’s a consequence of his gift. He has as little control over his gifts as you have knowledge of yours.” My eyes burned at the insult. “Your hatred consumes you. Escape it or allow it to undo you. He turned to leave but not before he said he loved me.


	2. Timothy

I pondered over Richard and his words as time melted away once again. Some days I awakened in my coffin trying to claw my way out. It wasn’t a fear of death, it was my disgust over my unchanging body. My immortality became a prison, my mind itself deteriorated. In my condition, I began to create illusions, walking, talking, feeling creatures at will. At first I would create hellish versions of myself, winged-beasts. I allowed them to stalk the halls at night to torture the child. Of course, it became apparent that he liked such creatures, he spoke with them and they adored him. They called him by affectionate names. He called them by mine. I destroyed my images, cast them away, and created grotesque gargoyles for him. He did not acknowledge them. They would not hurt him. I would not let them. I could not let them. With time, it became a game of ours. It gave me solace in even the darkest of my days until one day my creations could not find him.

Bruce left the house without so much as a word and he brought Timothy back covered in blood. I felt as if he’d taken away the boy himself. He had taken my brother from me. My brother as I knew him would awaken, reborn as a beast. “Why would you take him?” I perched on his headboard above his head burning with anger. I bore my fangs and dug my nails into the headboard, blood escaped from between my nails. The blood from his clothes began to rise off of him.

“Jason, contain yourself-.”

“He was the last bit of humanity I had to cherish in this hellish home,” I screamed. The blood became a barricade around the child, protecting him from my rage. “You should have let him die!”

“How could I? He made you smile!” I shook my head.

“When he was mortal! When he was my brother! What will become of him now? What sort of life will he live now?” Bruce ran his finger across the barrier and tasted it.

“He is your brother now, my gift to you is my gift to him now. Allow him now to see you as you are, and not as one of your illusions… Do with this gift as you please. Allow him to cherish you as I have, even in your resentment toward me. I’ve wished for years that your love for me would return my son… When will you forgive me?”

“When will you return my memories… Father,” I hissed.

“I cannot. Not as you are now. Your rage is more powerful than any gift that I have,” he sighed. The barrier around Timothy rose and flew toward Bruce in the form of daggers.

“Then leave us.” He went away and left me alone with my sleeping brother. I leapt from the headboard to the floor and waited by his bedside for several days as he slept.

When he awakened he uttered words with eyes closed, not to me, but to himself. “I am… Dead?”

“No,” I whispered. The blood had long dried in the container that I expelled it to.

“I am like you,” he asked. I turned to leave him and he grabbed my arm. I could feel his hunger, so strong, so powerful. He bit me, but my wound closed itself. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s come over me.” I pushed his hair from his forehead. His skin was ice cold as mine often was.

“Death would have been so becoming on you,” I whispered. My misplaced anger pained me as soon as I’d said it. He shook at my words and tears streamed down his cheeks, but his tears were crimson. Blood. I took my leave of him; his hunger followed me, tortured me, and as a result I sent him some of my creatures in the hopes that he could feed from them. They all returned from me disfigured, bleeding something unearthly. Black blood. “Who did this,” I asked my winged creation.

“The child,” it’s voice distorted, “Timothy.” Something rose in my throat. I felt something distant but primal and I shook my head.

“What? Why?”

“A terrible illness of the mind, a sadness-.” I could hear the child’s tortured wailing. I destroyed the damaged images and as soon as I stood up Bruce’s hand gripped my throat and pulled me up off of the ground.

“A dagger to the heart! I leave you with him and you break his heart?” He released me and I fell backward.

“That thing is no longer a child! It is a bloodthirsty demon!”

“And what were you to him when he was mortal,” he yelled.

“What?”

“You were his brother! He knew what you were! Even as a mortal he only desired your friendship. Still in his immortality, his admiration for you remains… He longs not for your illusions, he longs for your company. Jason, it was his choice to stay here. He wishes to belong to us as our family. Why can’t you accept his love and existence as it is now?”

“I have not loved since I’ve become this creature, my emotions have abandoned me. All that remains is hatred,” I whispered.

“Does not your heart hurt for Timothy? Do not his tears call out to your very heart?” I could still hear him wailing from his room. I could not explain it. It made me dizzy. I wanted it to end. It caused a panic to rise in my chest and all I wanted was to quiet it. I stood there across from Bruce and I clenched my fists trying to drive away the panic. “I know it does. I know you feel for him as I do. Return to him. Love him as I love you both-.”

“Quiet! Make the child stop his crying! How can he-. Why does he cry? Why can’t I?”

“No one ever said you could not-.”

“Leave me,” I whispered. He obeyed and I lay in my coffin hoping that my daylight slumber would give me solace from the pain that I had caused Timothy. It gave me no solace. He walked through my dreams, his cries invading my ears, and my heart. “Leave here!” He forced me to sit and I felt a wave of anxiety wash over me. I wanted to awaken.

“Why do you hate me? Why don’t you remember,” he asked.

“Remember what,” I asked. He created a projection of a memory I did not have. A boy, perhaps it was me. I was not sure. Timothy’s projection entered through the doors of the manor holding my hand. I knew it was him despite the fact that he could not have been more than thirteen or fourteen. I had to have been sixteen then.

“When you come here you will stay young. I’ll always remain here. If you ever long to be my brother again… If you ever long to stay young, you have to return here. You could spend eternity here… Eternity with us,” my projection whispered.

“I don’t remember this… You’ve only been here a short while. I know this,” I whispered. He shushed me and made me watch as his projection yanked his arm away and shook his head.

“No.”

“Timothy please-.” Timothy’s projection abandoned me there. The doors shut and my young projection sank to his knees. “I just wanted…” Bruce’s projection put his hand on my mortal shoulder as my younger self cried into his hands. Something flashed violet in Bruce’s blue eyes and my mortal projection’s head fell back almost as if his head emptied for a moment and I realized I had known and loved Timothy long before. He had always been my brother in my time there.

“He erased me from your mind,” Timothy whispered. I wanted to be angry but something in me shattered. I started to cry, really cry as Timothy had days earlier and I awoke with dried blood tears on my cheeks. Timothy stood over my open coffin and I hugged him.

“He should have let us die Timothy… Eternity is no gift, it is a curse.” He hugged me back. “It was not what you deserved. You don’t know how painful this eternal youth is.”

“I can… I can call on your memories. I can return them to you, through your dreams… I think,” he whispered, “And then you might remember we were brothers.”

“I already remember that,” I smiled. I let go of him and he smiled back at me. “You would still try to give me my memories? Won’t that take-.”

“We have an eternity,” he interrupted joyfully. An eternity.


	3. Food For Thought

Timothy walked through my dreams for several years helping me remember things that had been long erased from my mind. It took him years to hone his abilities but he was able to do so in a way that allowed him to keep me asleep for as long as he liked. After about six years of him visiting my dreams every single night, I was able to remember how I’d met Timothy and how I was when I was mortal. I just couldn’t remember how I almost died. Every time I had him try to bring that day to the surface he would try for several days only for me to wake up trying to claw my way out of my coffin. I fed as normal off of the blood Bruce kept in wine bottles for us. Some days I could not leave my coffin, so I would use my gift to summon the blood from the bottles to my lips. I think Timothy could understand that I was trying to let him into my mind, I allowed him into every facet of my consciousness but I could not control the barrier around the memory of my near-death.

The worst of these nights was when Timothy begged me to finally let him in and I wanted to, I really did, but my mind broke from his hold and I knew that I felt as if I were actually trapped this time. I could not scream. I could not move, I felt compelled to cry out to Timothy in slumber but I could not sleep. Once I could move I began to sob and pound against the coffin with open palms. I cried without solace, without abandon, I clawed at the velvet of my coffin and my coffin flew open and there Richard was, holding me in his arms. “What happened,” he asked. I could not answer. Crying became so easy for me once I finally cried all those years ago in slumber, the trouble was making the tears stop. “Why are you afraid? What are you afraid of-.” The blood of my tears melted into his shirt, I just wanted the pain to stop. I held onto him hoping that he could use his gift to change how I felt, despite knowing that that was not the extent of his talents. He could only feel what I did as I did, he used to emulate it at first without control, but now he just holds our emotions inside of him decoding them as they come and releasing them as they go.”Jason?” The cries subsided and I felt embarrassed. “No need to be embarrassed, are you okay?” I didn’t speak. I lifted the blood from my face and from his shirt and he smiled at me. “What an amazing gift.” I smiled. I knew he was only trying to make me feel better, and he knew just the way to do it. Flattery.

Richard only returned home to tell tales of newfound love and to bring gifts from the new time. Timothy took to him quickly. Around this time, he had started going by Dick. He said things had changed quite a bit in the past twenty years. The world was at war. We tried on the clothes of that time and he smiled at us as we were, but it quickly faded. “Something’s wrong?” Timothy looked away. “Tim?”

“It’s not for me to say…” He nodded.

“Jason,” Dick whispered, “What is it? Was it from earlier?”

“Timothy’s-. Tim’s helping me remember, but I can’t remember how I almost died. I can’t remember the day Bruce changed me…”

“Tim, you can restore memories?” Dick looked truly amazed.

“Only in dreams. I can walk through any dreams I like. I can control them, control dreams,” Tim whispered, “But I can’t make this memory resurface. It’s too guarded.” I looked away.

“Jason, maybe Bruce can-.”

“Remove all the memories I’ve regained? No, I won’t let him near me again. I can’t-.”

“Let’s discuss it over dinner, please? I’ll talk to him before midnight.” I nodded. “He hasn’t been able to remove these years from your memory Jason, and Tim’s memory is untouched. Maybe in his own way, he’s tried to reach out to you,” Dick placed his hand on my shoulder. “If I’m wrong let my heart wither and turn to dust inside my chest.” I nodded once more. The night passed by so slowly, Tim and I made a game of practicing the talk of the times. Dick came to retrieve us for dinner and we sat at the table drinking blood and eating potatoes. I hadn’t eaten food in years. It was strange, delicious, but strange.

“Tim can walk through dreams, control them…” Tim nearly dropped his glass, his hands were shaking. Dick kept the glass upright without so much as turning his head.

“Has he walked through your dreams,” Bruce asked. Dick shook his head. Tim cleared his throat and looked at me.

“He’s walked through mine,” I answered, “And I learned-. We learned he can resurface memories-.”

“All I need is an anchor, a feeling. Remnants of a feeling, but there’s a block,” he took a large gulp of blood from his glass, holding it between two shaky hands. I wished he wasn’t so nervous. He’d done nothing wrong.

“A block over what,” Bruce asked. Dick looked at me and nodded.

“My near-death. The day you changed me, I want to remember what happened… But I can’t on my own. I was hoping you could remove the barrier over this memory-.”

“I can’t put a barrier over anyone’s memories. I can just push them back to where you can’t see them, I know nothing about barriers. For some reason, you can block me from using certain gifts. It may be that your mind cannot handle the memory, pushing it even further from the surface than my gift already had, perhaps the only way to retrieve it is if Timothy and I combine our gifts in your dreams,” he suggested. I looked at Dick. He nodded.

“Perhaps…”

“May I interrupt with an announcement,” Dick asked. Tim looked up from his glass. “I have invited a guest, someone who knows of our immortality, with an immortality all her own.”

“The woman made of sun,” I asked, “How long has it been now?” Dick smiled.

“Sixty-three blissful years… You will love her,” he smiled. She must have been something spectacular for Dick to speak of her as he did. He was dramatic always, but rarely one for exaggeration. He sounded always, as if he aged like them, like mortals. He always knew what year or month or day that it was. It was kind of nice to have someone around who was so in touch with the outside world. He usually never stayed long, but when he did come to stay it gave me a little bit of peace.

After dinner the night seemed to sort of fly by quickly. Dick led many of the conversations that evening, for once I could almost feel what it must have been like for him, out there beyond the walls of the manor. I wondered what could possibly be here that drew him back. He spoke of the world at war, he spoke of the women and their hair and their work in factories, he even spoke of the men years before. He said the 1920’s were his favorite, the men and their striking eyes, the moving pictures, the women and their short hair and short dresses. He adored that time. He adored the parties and the women and the men and the music. He loved the excitement of it all. He told us the time we were in at that moment was dreary. Tim listened with excitement. I imagined he was more in touch than I with time itself. While I walked around unaware of who and what decayed around me. He must have had friends outside our walls. He must have had someone to return to when he left me. How long had I known him?

I found myself drifting off as far as my mind would take me as I watched Dick speak. Soon the sun would rise. Soon I would sleep. Soon I would know how I was supposed to die. Soon I was to know what happened to me.


	4. Parasol

We all lay ourselves to rest in our respective chambers and as soon as I dreamt I felt his hand grasp my shoulder. “Jason,” Bruce whispered, “This is… Real?”

“This conversation is real. The memories are real… But a dream is only a dream, I believe,” I whispered. Tim looked at us and took a deep breath.

“Bruce, I need you to start with the day and I can do everything from there,” Tim whispered.

He created projections of us when I was mortal. I perched on the balcony watching as much of the small town as my eyes would allow. “I see her,” I whispered to myself, and Bruce’s projection pulled me off of the balcony and held me steady. I looked away from him. “You can’t make me forget her. You’ve already tried.” He let go of me.

“Don’t leave these walls. Please stay here. Stay here with me. You can be happy here-.”

“I have to speak with her, I have to see her,” I wriggled free from his hold and he stepped aside.

“So be it. Do not return here, do not return to me,” he whispered. I could feel my mortal heart shattering at the cold in his voice. I did not speak. I did not move. “She does not care for you as I do. She does not love you. You are as much her child as I am mortal. Would you spurn all of my love for a woman who does not exist-.” I turned away from him and fled the manor. For days I searched the streets for her, and one day -moments before I felt I would give up- I saw her. She walked past me, her pink parasol, the smell so familiar. I followed her and no matter how fast I pushed through the streets I could not reach her. I could not call her. I was speechless. Mother just look at me. Just notice me, if only for a moment.

I followed her to an abandoned barn, there she escaped me once again. The doors shut and trapped me inside. “Mother?” I could not see a face, but I could feel someone in the barn with me. I was frightened. “Mother is that you?” A voice laughed behind me and before I could turn around the figure struck me so hard I could hear my skull crack and I lost consciousness. When I awakened it was dark. I could not stand. He laughed over me, and I just wanted to escape him. I just wanted something in me to get up and run. I was too weak. He hit me again and again and again for what felt like hours and I closed my eyes. Death would be peaceful for me. Death would be release. Bruce burst in and the figure had long gone. He picked me up and held me in his arms, weeping over me. I touched his face. “How?”

“I could not let you leave without apologizing. I can save you...”

“Please,” I whispered. I asked him to change me. He cut his hand and clenched his fist over my open mouth. I grabbed his hand and I drank from his palm. I remembered how hungry I was. I held his hand in both of mine and I drank until I could no longer hold my eyes open. I could feel his blood dripping down my face and I loosened my grip on his hand. My head fell back and he carried me back to the carriage. He pushed my hair out of my face and he wiped away his tears.

“Forgive me,” he whispered as he pressed his thumb against the dent in my skull and his eyes glowed their violet glow and faded back into his blue. “This is no longer your burden. Allow it to be mine. Always.”

“Tim make it stop!” I tore my consciousness away from the dream and awakened in my coffin, short of breath, shaking violently. I pushed my coffin open and climbed out. Dick waited for me in the doorway.

“Did you see what you wanted to see?” I burst into tears and tears streamed down Dick’s face as a result. He composed himself and held me. “I’m glad that you’re happy again.”

“Will Bruce ever forgive me? I blamed him for over sixty years,” I wiped away my tears and Dick smiled at me..   
“He was never angry with you. He loves you, he loves all of us. If anything it pained him that he could never give you back your security, your innocence… I think he always wanted to protect you and he feels some solace in your anger because he could not protect you as you were.” Tim ran down the hall and into my arms and then he disappeared.   
“Tim?” He flashed in and out of sight as if he were a flicker of light. “Tim?”

“I… I can’t-.” Dick made a face and made a fist and Tim stopped flashing in and out and I could see him. He couldn’t stop shaking. “I-.” I hugged him.

"You didn’t do anything wrong. I just felt guilty. I never realized that Bruce had only done what I asked of him. Thank you,” I smiled. Dick let Bruce past him and he stood across from me.

“Jason… I’m sorry for everything. I-.”

“I forgive you… But could you forgive me? I’ve been so selfish,” I whispered. He opened his arms and I hugged him and he held us all in embrace. Tim, Dick, and I. He really did love us. Someone knocked at our door and Dick pulled away.

“It’s her…” I lifted the blood tears off of all of our skin and expelled it to an open jar. We followed Dick to the front of the house and straightened our clothes. He opened the door with a slight twitch of his pinky and a tall woman stood at the door, her hair in curls that reached her feet, she wore a bathing suit. She floated about an inch over the ground. “My love!” She smiled and flew directly into him, picking him up off of the ground, and flying around with him in her embrace. It was the first time I ever saw something so spectacular. Her skin began to glow bright and she kissed him, and he whispered something to her.

“Oh!” She sank back to the ground, her bare feet just barely touching the tile and she smiled at us. “I’m Koriand’r.” She shook Bruce’s hand.

“Bruce,” he smiled. She was captivating. I had never seen anyone like her. I wondered if she fed as we did or if she was a being unheard of by human ears. Maybe she was not of our world.

“Koriand’r,” she introduced herself to me and then to Tim.

“I’m Jason and this is Timothy… Tim,” I replied. She smiled.

“Oh, are we using our short names? You can all call me Kory.” Tim smiled.

“Would you like some crimson?” She shook her head and Dick hung on her as if he could not bear to be away from her.

“Oh, I don’t feed, not on crimson. I feed on sunlight, on love,” she smiled and pinched Tim’s cheek. “You’re so sweet.” He smiled.

“Thank you,” Tim whispered. Kory picked Dick up and pressed kisses to his face and neck.

“Oh, how I’ve missed you,” Kory exclaimed and he linked his fingers underneath her hair behind her neck. She held him by his waist and their foreheads touched. Something in my heart changed looking at them and it was as if I had forgotten everything that had happened in the past sixty-six years. “We should go out tonight! All of us.” Tim’s face lit up. I wondered what it was like for him when he’d left the manor last. I wondered what life outside was like. I hadn’t been outside the walls of the manor in sixty-six years. I hadn’t even taken notice of how times had changed even when I was mortal. I imagined things must have been different.

“How old are you Tim, you still seem so new,” Kory smiled. She seemed to adore him as if he were only a baby to her.

“I was seventeen when I came to live here… That was thirty-six years ago,” Tim whispered. Thirty-six years. I spent thirty-six years of my life with him and I’d known him before in passing as friends. We’d been brothers for so long and yet it felt like seconds that I’d known him. Thirty years I lived in immortality alone with Bruce, with only sporadic visitation from Dick. So very many years of unhappiness, confusion, anger, and it all seemed to melt away once Tim came to live with us.

“Oh you’re so very young. Just a child. I can almost smell the youth in your skin, so beautiful,” Kory whispered, “And you Jason? You’re much older, are you not?” I nodded.  
“About one-hundred and fifty-five,” I whispered. She giggled.

“Not much older, but still you are not a child as he is. Would you like to know how long I’ve lived?” We both nodded and Dick beamed. He seemed to enjoy hearing about how long she’d lived. “I am seven-hundred and ninety-three years old. I came here to this world three-hundred years ago before your births and this world it grows in its beauty, just as you all grow in yours. You are all so pretty, like little birds.” Kory lifted Tim up as a mother would to admire a child. “So small, so sweet-smelling. I see why he loves you so.” I wondered how often Dick had spoken of us. He rarely ever visited. Perhaps he knew us through his gift as an empath, his strong emotional bond to us. I had to ask and so I pulled him aside before leaving the house.

“How often do you speak of us?”

“Whenever I have breath in my lungs,” he smiled.

“But how well do you know us?”

“I know you very well. I knew you loved Tim before even you could see it, I know now that you feel insecure. I know that you long for reassurance, because you are uncertain of what awaits outside these doors,” Dick whispered, “And I will protect you. I mean that.” He tapped my nose and draped my sweater over my shoulders before leading me out the door, through the gates of the manor, and into a horseless carriage they called an automobile. Tim rolled the window with amusement written all over his face.

“Where are the curtains,” Tim asked. Bruce nodded as if that was his question as well and Kory turned to us from the front and smiled.

“There are no curtains,” she giggled, “Oh! But there is this Little Bird.” She turned on the music box in the automobile. “It’s called a ‘radio’.”

“That’s marvelous! Isn’t it Jason,” Tim applauded. I smiled and nodded before Dick started the automobile up and startled us both. Tim became invisible.

“It’s all right. We’re about to drive off,” Dick reassured, and he began to drive off. It was relaxing, riding in an automobile. Quite stable. We stared out the windows in awe of the night lights of the 1940’s, the night lights of Gotham. A single light flew across the sky. Tim reappeared and leaned forward to watch the sky itself.

“Kory, look! A dancer,” Dick whispered. Kory laughed and put a blouse on over the bathing suit she wore.

“Beautiful is it not,” Kory whispered, “What do you call it on this world?”

“A shooting star,” Tim whispered in awe. She gasped.

“How lovely!” Tim tapped her on the shoulder.

“Have you been out among the stars?” She nodded. “What is it like? Are there others like you? As happy as you are?” She smiled.

“Oh there is so much out there, so so much, but here I feel… Infinite, intimately-entwined in forever and so far from it all at once. So much changes so quickly here, and you all love so deeply, the love on this world tastes like no other. How could I ever want for anything more?” I reached my hand out of the window to feel the same cold air that filled my lungs. Bruce’s hand lay lovingly on the back of my head. I could not shake the feeling that there was something out there, just outside of my reach, something all my own in that world. I imagined it was why I felt so empty inside still. I didn’t bother to hide it. I knew Dick could feel it, it permeated even through to my bones. What was out there? Why did it call to me so? What was the feeling?

“Should we walk around tonight?” Dick turned around to look at our faces. Tim seemed more than excited to feel the night air on his skin once again. I felt torn but I could not deny Tim his happiness. I nodded and looked over at Bruce who smiled at me. “Looks like a yes to me. Feels like one as well. Dressed for the occasion Miss Anders?” She pulled a skirt on and nodded.

Dick stopped the car on the corner and let Kory out first and she opened Tim’s door and we piled out of the automobile and followed them down the street. Kory flew a little bit above the ground but not so much so that it was noticeable. She walked on air with such grace. Dick held her hand and led us all the way down to a little park. My nose twitched. “Do you smell that?”

“Crimson,” Tim whispered. He didn’t like to call it blood, and we all respected that. A man came up to us covered in blood. A mortal. His face covered.

“Someone stop him! He has my purse!” I used my gift to pull his blood from the open wound in his body and we all fed from it, all except Kory who didn’t seem to mind. The man collapsed and Dick hid him from view before returning the purse to the woman in the distance.

“Can you make him invisible Tim?” Tim tried to but he couldn’t and I think it embarrassed him. Kory’s fingers glowed as she held his face in her hands.

“We all have our limits. What would life be without them? What would eternity be without them,” she asked, “Such a lovely little bird.” Dick smiled at them.


	5. I Wanna Kill You

Kory decided to stay along for a while with Dick. She said she adored us, that we were pretty. She was so very kind and she carried so many gifts. I listened to her stories about love and how she’d fallen from the sky when she’d met Dick. A mistake, a lovely mistake. He caught her in his arms. It was like they were fated to meet one another. She said they spent the first few years together just trying to understand one another, but after about twelve years it was as if they had always known each other. There was little difference between one-hundred years and two to her. As much as things change technologically and visually in the world, people are often fundamentally the same.

Dick brought things into the manor to help us adjust to the technology and looks of the new times. We even got a moving picture box. A television. I loved television, so did Tim. I found myself watching as long as it would play. Sometimes I would watch past daylight times. Sometimes Kory would sit and watch with me, eating fruits, and telling me about each character, explaining the parts I did not understand. I became captivated especially with the concept of romantic love. Kory said she could almost taste love as it was in its purest form. She told me it tasted sweet like a cake, warm like one too.

When Kory was asleep some nights I would follow Dick outside of the manor and he would teach me how to drive and give me money to buy things. He taught me how to go about walking amongst mortals without being noticed or having someone point me out as different, he even taught me how to feed on those who mean the world no good or buy crimson from hospitals with questionable nurses. Some of them were well acquainted with us. Other times, he would talk to me about the growing emptiness inside me and I could not explain it, because I did not know what was causing it. It seemed like he knew but he was waiting for me to figure it out.

I eventually tried to fill the void with music. I loved music. Especially when the nineties came around. I liked the hair, the sounds, the food, and the fast-paced energy that seemed to surround everyone. Everything was awake at all times. Even the mortals. Sometimes I ventured out in the car alone. Most of the time Kory and Dick or Tim. We went to record stores and to the mall. I changed my hair and tried my hand at makeup. When I was alone, I danced at the clubs and drank with the mortals. The music was so loud and the people didn’t mind getting so close while dancing. Close enough to bruise me. It felt good to dance.

The mortals in the nineties were so different from any of the mortals I’d ever met, they found vampires romantic. Some of them would let me feed off of them, they found it to be exciting. I didn’t return to the manor every night as I had at first. I would go to their hotels, their homes, and sometimes the back rooms in the clubs and I would enjoy them, their crimson. I was clumsy with women at first. Sometimes too rough, sometimes not enough, sometimes my hands slipped, sometimes I was afraid I would suck the very life out of them. I had to be careful, I couldn’t let them bite me at first. I was afraid I would turn them. One woman bit down on my lip once but before she could taste my blood I pulled it back into my body. It made me ill. I threw up soon afterward. Black blood. I was lucky enough in picking mortals to enjoy, they liked for me to feed on them, and they never attempted to do so for me.

I loved the women. They were so independent, so vocal, their skin felt so soft. Sometimes I met women that just wanted me to pretend that I fed on crimson, others just wanted to sleep with me, sometimes I wouldn’t have sex with a mortal woman, sometimes I would spend the whole night lying awake next to them. My favorite mortal women were the ones who showed me and told me exactly what they wanted, the ones that were rough, the ones that made threats. “I’m gonna rip your heart out,” one woman screamed while on top of me and she pinned my arms to the mattress. I liked to make women like that see people walking around their apartments from the corners of our eyes and some of them knew what I was doing, that woman in particular played a song in the background -Angry Johnny- and she looked one of my illusions in the eyes and wrapped her hands around my throat. “What are you,” she laughed. I smiled and made the illusion dissipate.

“A vampire,” I licked my fangs.

“Prove it,” she laughed. I made the blood in her body circulate through slower and she shivered.

“Do you feel that?”

“Bullshit, that’s just coincidence.” I shook my head and made her blood rush downward filling up her lower regions and she gasped. “Fuck!” She let go of my neck and I got on top of her and she let me feed on her. “Just don’t kill me.”

“Not a problem,” I answered and I made sure to leave no trace of her blood on her sheets when she climaxed. She placed her hand back around my throat.

“I’m gonna snap your neck,” she laughed and she tightened her grip on the sides of my neck and I shrugged.

“I don’t really think I work that way,” I smiled, removing her hand, and kissing her on the forehead. She held onto my face.

“No one’s gonna believe me if I tell them,” she asked. I nodded.

“It’s too far-fetched, but at least we had a good time,” I whispered. She blew me a kiss as I started to get dressed and she let me leave without a word. I think she knew I would never come back. I think it was more exciting for her in that respect. Her blood tasted sweet. She was frightening. I liked her that way, but that’s far from my point. On my way out of her apartment and out to my car I saw a man drawing in a sketchpad on the fire escape.

“I’m glad she didn’t kill you, I imagine the police would’ve been a real pain. Besides she plays great music,” he whispered without turning to look at me, “I mean what a song. ‘I can do it in a church, I can do it anytime or place,’ imagine that.” I laughed. “Got somewhere to be?”

“Uh… No not really,” I replied, “Why?”

“Can I draw your face,” he asked and he turned around for me to look him in the eyes. His green eyes looked me over as if he were already memorizing the details of my face.  
“Sure, will it take long?” He shook his head. I sat across from him and he put his sketchpad to the side and he manipulated my limbs to the position he wanted me in. I sat still with knees to my chest and he sort of smiled at me before picking up his sketchpad and drawing my portrait.

“Have you lived here long?” I nodded. “You can talk, I kind of want to see you talking.”

“Yeah, I was born here,” I answered. He nodded.

“I’ve only been here for about a month or so and I gotta ask, has Gotham always been this grimy?” I smiled.

“As far back as I can remember? It has always been disgusting,” I laughed. He nodded.

“Do you dye your hair like that?” I cocked my head. “The white in your bangs?”

“Oh, no. That’s all me,” I replied, “Do you draw every man that leaves her apartment via fire escape, or was I just too beautiful for you to let walk away?”

“I can’t sleep,” he was serious, “I got some bad news a week ago and I haven’t slept very well.” I frowned. “It shouldn’t make you sad. You don’t even know what it is.”  
“I can only try to imagine… Are you all right,” I asked. He nodded. “Can I ask what the bad news was?” He shrugged uncomfortably and nodded.

“My mother died. I guess I shouldn’t say I got bad news because I was there to see her go, but it was like I wasn’t there. It wasn’t me… I finally stopped crying when I got back to Gotham, thank god, but I think I must be in shock or something because I don’t feel much of anything,” he whispered.

“I relate to the feeling…” He looked up at me.

“When did you start feeling something again?”

“I haven’t yet. I think what I do now is pretend. It makes my company more palatable I think,” I whispered. He went back to drawing me.

“I feel like I have to tell you since I probably won’t be seeing your face again after tonight… Can I tell you a secret?” I nodded. “Of course I can, who would you tell? My mother and I were always close when I was growing up, it was just me and her, until I turned eighteen and I wanted to travel. She was happy for me. She told me she wanted me to branch out, to leave the nest, and this is where I ended up. In the bowels of Gotham, and it’s not because I wanted to be here, it was because I couldn’t bear to look her in the face and lie any longer.” My eyes didn’t leave him. “I tried, I really did. I dated. I dated lots of women, but it didn’t mean anything to me. I was so afraid to tell her that none of them meant anything to me, so afraid to tell her that I was gay.” I cocked my head sympathetically and reached to touch his arm and he leaned back into the bars of the fire escape. I pulled my hand back.

“I overstepped my boundaries. I’m sorry,” I whispered. He shook his head.

“It’s fine, I just don’t understand how you could understand me. I mean, I feel like I sound like a self-centered asshole… But I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I’ve never said it out loud and I wished to God that I had just told her,” he mumbled, “But instead I’m telling the straight guy who fucked my upstairs neighbor because I’m drunk and I was too chicken to just-.” He started to cry. I put his sketch pad to the side and I helped him up and took him and his sketch pad inside and I laid him to rest in his bed and I sat with him until he stopped crying and he fell asleep. I was too afraid to just leave him there alone, I was afraid that he would die. I was afraid that a mortal would die. He awakened once that night and when he saw that I was still there he reached for my hand and held it in his until he fell back into his slumber. When the sun began to rise I closed his curtains and I fell asleep in his chair. I slept there hoping that maybe he would still be asleep too and Tim visited me in my dream.

“Are you safe?” I smiled.

“I’m very alive Tim. I’m sleeping in a mortal’s chair in their apartment… Actually, can you do something for me?” He looked confused. “The mortal is not someone I’m involved with. I just need you to tap into his consciousness and keep him asleep until sunset. Can you do that for me?”

“Why?”

“He might not want me here when he awakens, and I don’t think I’ll make it all the way home. Just until sunset Tim…” He nodded and left my dream. I went back to sinking into imaginary clouds and watching the sky change colors. I missed sunlight. Direct sunlight. It’s warmth, so intoxicating.


	6. Angel of Darkness

I woke up before the mortal did and he sat up and looked over at me. “I think I’m gonna be-.” He jumped out of bed and ran to his bathroom to throw up.

“Are you okay?” He flushed the toilet and I heard him turn on the sink.

“I feel like shiiiiiit!” I smiled. “You stayed until I woke up?” He left his bathroom and looked at me, he wouldn’t open his eyes all the way.

“I was worried… Besides, I never got to see the finished portrait,” I replied. He picked up his sketch pad and he handed it to me. I looked so fragile.

“I should probably make you something to eat-.” I shook my head. “No really, I owe you for staying. I shouldn’t have put that on you-.”

“I only stayed because I wanted to… Besides, I had to set things straight because I’m not,” I interrupted and he bowed his head trying to figure out what I said and when he realized what I meant he looked at me with wide eyes. “I’m just as scared as you are.” He smiled.

“I’m not gonna fuck you.” I laughed.

“I never once asked,” I smiled. He laughed.

“What’s your name?” He leaned back on the wall and looked up at the ceiling.

“Jason. And yours?” He made his way back over to his bed and lay flat on his stomach. He crossed his arms underneath his face and turned to look at me.

“I’m Kyle… Kyle Rayner,” he mumbled, “You must feel like shit sleeping in that chair all day. Do you wanna lay down?”

“First he says he won’t fuck me, now he tries to get me into bed,” I joked. He rolled his eyes.

“Puh lease, do you wanna lay down or not because I couldn’t afford a couch for this shithole,” he laughed and I lay on his other side. “Why’d you fuck her?” I shrugged.

“Because she wanted to. Because she was pretty,” I answered, “I don’t really think much of it when I sleep with women. It’s just a cool way to spend the night I guess.”

“Have you ever-.”

“No, I’m fairly new to all of this… To dating, it’s complicated enough when you don’t know anyone. It’s a lot to figure out,” I whispered. He smiled. He put on a different face for me than the one I’d seen last night. It was like he felt safe, he didn’t feel the need to hide his feelings.

“Do you think it’d be any different?” I looked up at his ceiling.

“I think so… I think it’d be like…” I made grunting noises, “But like from two slightly different voices.” He laughed.

“You’re a dumbass,” he laughed, “Not to be a kid but we should be friends. Listen, if you’ve got somewhere to be tonight just give me your number and take down mine.”

“Thought you said you wouldn’t fuck me-.”

“I don’t know you yet, but it was nice that you stayed with me…” I got ready to leave and he didn’t move from his place on the bed. I picked up a notebook and a pen of his and took down his number and left mine with him. “If you’re gonna come back, take the portrait. Only if you know that I’ll be able to draw you again.” I nodded, looking him in the eye and I said I’d take the portrait. He sat up and opened his nightstand and pulled out a can of spray and he sprayed it on the open portrait before rolling it up for me.

Once I’d left his apartment I felt a longing to return to him, to speak with him for hours. I drove home, thinking of his face and once I returned Tim sat on the couch playing games just as he had the night before I left. I went and cleaned up before returning to speak to him. “What happened with the mortal,” he asked.

“He drew my portrait the night before,” I whispered, “Would you like to see?” He nodded excitedly, pausing his game and Dick and Kory came over to greet me.

“A mortal drew your portrait?” I nodded. Dick sat next to Tim and Kory sat on his other side. I unrolled the portrait and Dick smiled but I think he felt something different in me and he frowned. “Jason, maybe we should go out for a walk in the night air.” I nodded and knocked Tim over playfully before going out to the courtyard with Dick. “You can’t feel what you feel for him. He won’t last. He won’t stay-.”

“He drew my portrait, that is all-.”

“No, that’s not all. You know that I can feel what you feel, and you know that I understand your feelings, but these feelings are only going to bring about pain. Did you forget what you were, what we are?” I shook my head and he took hold of me by my shoulders. “You’re lying to me!” I pushed him away.

“I only spoke with him!” He shook his head.

“You forgot your immortality,” Dick whispered, “Don’t forget. The worst heartbreak is knowing that they will age and you will not. Do you remember Wally?”

“This is not the same as Wally-.” He pressed his palm to my chest and I felt something in me shatter and I couldn’t see straight. I wanted to claw my heart out of my chest.  
“I’m sorry that I had to do that to you, but you have to understand I carry that with me every single day. He didn’t wish to be immortal. I couldn’t force that on him, and so I loved him as he was until he perished in my arms… You would not be able to bear the full weight of such a heartbreak,” he took the feeling back from me.

“I’m not in love with this mortal-.”

“These are the beginnings of a love long forbidden by those like us. It’s fine to just spend your time with them in passing, but you can’t give your heart to any of them. It will only end in tragedy,” he whispered.

“I am not in love with this mortal. He is only a means to slow down time,” I whispered.

“Remember that feeling I gave to you. Remember that I tried to spare you from that pain, because I love you. I know you’re good even in your heart, but this will undo you. I know it will,” he whispered. I shook my head. Kory came out back to see if we were okay and I pushed past her and left the manor in the car and I found myself in the ally that I had just left, standing there watching the fire escape. He came out and without looking he climbed over the railing and he let go. I created one of my illusions to catch him and it covered Kyle’s mouth before he could scream and let him down carefully on the ground.

“What the hell-.”

“Be quiet please,” I begged.

“Does that thing belong to you? What the hell is that? What the hell are you?”

“Why did you jump? What if I had called you when I got home and-.”

“Why the hell are you here?”

“He wished to see you-.” Kyle’s hair stood up on the back of his neck and I made the creature disappear.

“Why does it sound like that? What the hell are you? Why are you here?” I reached out to reassure him and he backed away into the wall. “Don’t fucking touch me. What are you,” he started to cry, “I died didn’t I? Am I in hell? Oh god, I died last night and I’m in hell and you’re here to torture me aren’t you?” I shook my head frantically and he sank to the ground and started to hyperventilate. “I’m dead…”

“No you’re not, I promise you. I’m not here to torture you. I’m not… I have gifts, that’s how I made the creature… I came here because… I don’t know why I came back here. Maybe I was upset because I lied to my brother about yesterday and he told me that you would die and that my heart would break because I’m a vampire and I can’t age but you’re a mortal and you still age, but I can’t be in love with someone I just met. I’m not in love with you and I tried to tell him that but he can feel my feelings and for the first time since I was mortal, I felt as if forever wouldn’t be such a bad thing if you were there and-.” I sat across from him and fell into a panic. “I sound insane…”

He laughed through short breaths. “I think I’m having a heart attack,” he laughed, “I don’t understand any of what you just said.”

“I’m a vampire and so is my family,” I clarified.

“I tried to kill myself and you saved me because you want to eat me?” He pushed his hair back “You’re going to eat me, aren't you?” I shook my head.

“That would be disgusting, we don’t eat people… Besides, that’s not why I’m here. I don’t know why I’m here… I don’t know… Why am I here?” I took a deep breath and he looked like he wasn’t getting any calmer. “I’m not going to eat you… Feed on you. I usually don’t do that without asking first, unless you’re a murderer or something.” He shook his head.

“I’m just an artist… I draw comics for god’s sakes-.” I held out my hand to stop him.

“I wouldn’t save you from a fall like that just to kill you. I don’t want to kill you. I just want things to be normal like they were last night… I just want to have a friend, I just want to be your friend… I don’t want to hurt you.” Kyle nodded and I stood up and took his hand, helping him up.

“Can we go back to my apartment? I need to lie down.” I nodded and I gave myself wings so that I could fly up to his fire escape and we went into his apartment through his window and he went into his freezer and ate some ice cream. “Do you want some or do you not eat food?”

“I can eat… Are you okay?” He shrugged.

“I’m good with the fact that I’m losing my mind… Vampires have fangs. You look like a normal-.” I created the illusion of fangs. “Can you stop making things appear out of thin air? It’s not helping.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” He shrugged.

“I dunno get my sketch pad off the desk. Maybe perch on something, if I can draw it I can make sense of it…” I took off my shoes and perched on his chair. “You have excellent balance.”

“Thank you.”

“This is so weird… You understand that this is not at all the reaction of a man with a normal brain, right?” I cocked my head.

“You’ve been through a lot in a few minutes, I think you’re taking things very well,” I lied. I knew he was in a state of shock but I didn’t want him to go back to his panicked state.

“Why did that thing you made sound like that?”

“I don’t know. I just imagine that’s what a man with wings would sound like… Garbled, startling in depth… I guess I haven’t been around mortals long enough to realize how frightening that might be…” He shrugged.

“I dunno, maybe a net would have sufficed?” I laughed.

“I’m sorry. I don’t think well under pressure. I didn’t want you to die… But I guess that’s what my brother meant, you all die eventually…” He continued to draw as if he couldn’t hear me. “You made me forget that for a while.”

“That people die,” he looked up at me and I shook my head.

“No, you made me forget that I can’t… But maybe you can help me-.”

“You’re crazier than I am,” he mumbled, “You’re immortal and I’m mortal with no clue of what I’m supposed to do with what is probably a very short life in comparison to yours.” I frowned.

“You have something that I don’t. You have a connection to time, to the outside world, you go to work, and you get to know people… Maybe we can help each other?” He continued to draw and I grew quiet. It was like he didn’t know what to say. He drew me as I was for a while and let my appearance go back to normal once I saw him take out the can of spray. “You okay?"

“I jumped to my death tonight Jason… What the fuck do you think?” I frowned.

“Do you want me to go,” I asked. He shook his head.

“No, I’m just confused. This is a lot…” I hopped off of the chair and crouched in front of him. “It’s not even the vampire thing… I mean I can’t really wrap my head around it, but it’s the fact that I have to believe it because I shouldn’t be here right now. I’m supposed to be splattered all over the alley…” I sat flat down in front of him on the floor. “So how does the whole vampire thing work? Someone bit you or can vampires have babies? Or is it like a thing where you have to sell your soul to the-.”

“I was a mortal, a regular person just like you one-hundred and sixty-nine years ago and I stole something from the vampire who later became my dad… He took me in and for some reason I didn’t age while I stayed there, but I left after about seventy years or something fairly close to that to look for my mother, and I almost died… He saved me by allowing me to drink his blood-.”

“Wait hold on, I’m bad at math but how old was your mom when you almost died. If it was seventy years later?” I tried to do the math in my head and I realized that something was very wrong.

“I swore it was her. She smelled like her, she even carried a pink parasol like she did when I was a child-.”

“But did you see her face? She would’ve been ninety-something at least, maybe you were seeing what you wanted to see in a mother in that lady. Did you ever think that maybe your mother was nothing like what you saw in that woman,” he asked.

“Stop it,” I whispered. My head started to spin.

“What was your mother like? Did she ever go looking for you when you went to live with your father?” I tried to think back to her face, her eyes, and I could remember the smell of her.

“She smelled like incense.” He got up and pulled out a case of different types of incense packaged individually in sealed plastic. He had me smell each one by one and by the third I was sure that the strong scent reminded me of her.

“Opium, she smelled like opium.” I shook my head.

“No. I must have been wrong-.”

“She was addicted to opium, wasn’t she? She wasn’t someone who could’ve stuck around even if she wanted to. You were probably alone for a long time before you stole from the man who became your father. Maybe it made it easier to think that she was someone else, so you sought out someone who was pretty, someone who seemed alone, someone you could see being your mother-.” I covered my ears and bowed my head. I couldn’t block him out. “There was no way that woman could’ve been your mom Jason-.”

“Stop!” I could feel something in me change and I couldn’t control it. I didn’t want to. I was so angry, so hurt. That was the last thing I remembered before falling unconscious.


	7. Feeding Time

I awakened with my wrists handcuffed to his bed. “What the fuck,” I whispered to myself and I looked around. I was seeing red in a literal sense.

“You’re freaking me out,” Kyle replied. I couldn’t see him. “Your eyes turned red and now you’re like a-a… It’s like you’re sweating blood now… Stop it.” I yanked at the cuffs.  
“Why did you cuff me to the bed,” I asked. I was afraid he was going to hurt me and I started yanking at them even harder.

“You were freaking me out. I didn’t know what else to do, I don’t know anything about vampires. I’ve never even seen Lost Boys for god’s sakes Jason! I-I thought you were gonna try to eat me or something-.” I started crying.

“I don’t want to eat anyone. I just want you to let me go. I don’t know what’s going on? I’ve never done anything like this? I know I can control blood, but I’ve never become a-a-.”

“Blood monster.” He held up his sketch pad over the kitchen counter and I saw a grotesque creature unlike the version of me he’d drawn of me before. I closed my eyes and relaxed for a second and I felt his hands on my wrists and then I heard him unlock the cuffs and I rubbed my sore wrists and hugged my knees. I didn’t want to open my eyes. “Can all vampires control blood like that?”

“Like what,” I asked.

“Open your eyes.” I obeyed and looked around at the barrier of blood I’d wrapped around myself like a security blanket.

“We all have different gifts. I can make things appear with my imagination, and I can control blood. I-.” I made a jar appear and placed the blood in it. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that upset before...”

“I’m sorry… I should’ve been more considerate. I keep seeing you as a vampire and not as a person. I guess I didn’t expect you to be hurt over something that happened so long ago, it was insensitive of me. I really am sorry,” he whispered. I let him sit on the bed next to me.

“It’s okay…”

“It’s really not, you were more than sensitive to me when I told you about my mother, you didn’t ask anything, you just let me talk… I should have given you the same respect in return,” Kyle whispered before lying down on his back. “I’m gonna be better.” I closed my eyes.

“I’m not used to feeling… I mean, I’m so used to acting as if nothing matters. It’s tiring. I’m tired of going about my life without feeling anything,” I whispered. Kyle put his hand on my shoulder.

“I wish that I could shut it all off… I’m so sick of feeling like I have to hurt everyone to keep them out,” Kyle whispered, “I know this sounds crazy, but do you wanna crash here for a few days?”

“Okay,” I whispered, “But I feel like I should get you a couch or something?” He laughed and I smiled.

“Don’t worry about it, you sleep during the day anyways. Don’t you?” I nodded. “Are you gonna need a coffin?”

“No, I don’t think I have to sleep in one… They’re nice, but I can sleep in a bed just fine,” I whispered, “Can I tell you something?”

“Shoot.” I closed my eyes.

“Being around you makes me feel like a mortal again. I longed for this for… Wait. Kyle why do you have handcuffs and if you’re saving them for that special someone why didn’t you get the nice ones?” He blushed.

“Okay first of all, I’m not a virgin, I’ve used those cuffs before, and second, I get too embarrassed to go into sex shops. I get to the front door and I turn around. It’s so intimidating,” he whispered. I laughed. “What’s so funny? Who died and made you a vampire sex god anyways?”

“My control over blood does,” I replied, “That and like half a decade of practice.” He snorted.

“Practice,” he laughed, “So vampires don’t just emerge straight from feeding as sex gods?” I punched him playfully in the ribs and he turned to me and smiled. "I've lost my marbles. Completely," he laughed, "But at least I made a new cool vampire friend… And you really mean you're not gonna eat me?" I kicked him.

"Shut up," I laughed. Friend. He called me his friend. "What do you eat? Like, what new foods do mortals-. What do people eat nowadays?"

"Are you… Of course you're not hungry for food… I've got spicy pizza in the fridge, ice cream sandwiches in the freezer, corn flakes in the pantry…” I lay back next to him.

“What’s an ice cream sandwich?” He smiled at me.

“You’ve never had an ice cream sandwich?” I shook my head.

“What kind of bread do you use to make one,” I asked. He laughed. “What? You don’t use bread for-.” He got up and went in his freezer and threw me a little rectangular white package and I unwrapped it. “It’s not bread. It’s chocolate…” I bit into it and I smiled. “Wow.” I took a big bite into it and he chuckled.

"Slow down you're gonna get brain freeze-." I shook my head and took another bite.

"Blood powers."

"Hemokinesis," he corrected and I finished my sandwich.

"Do they all have three flavors of ice cream on the inside? How do they do this? Who invented these?" He laughed.

"Want another one?" I nodded and he threw another one to me and I devoured the second one.

"Why are humans sad when things like this exist?" He went in his drawer and turned on the tv.

"Help yourself I have two unopened boxes in there. I'm gonna take a shower," Kyle whispered. I nodded and he got up, taking his pajamas and towel to the bathroom. I changed the channel to watch the classical music channel. I started feeling funny and soon enough I was face to face with Tim.

"Are you okay?"

"Tim what are you doing?"

"I know you and Dick had an argument. Does the mortal mean something to you?" I shrugged. "Are you coming back?"

"Not for a little while, can you tell Kory I'm sorry about earlier?" He nodded and hugged me. I smiled. "Okay…" He let go and tried to force a smile.

"Dick's just trying to look out for you… He loves you you know?” I didn’t say anything. “He does. He said he’s sorry.” It was so nice of Tim to try and make peace between the two of us. I wasn’t as angry at Dick for what he said as much as I was about the fact that he might be right about me. Maybe I did like Kyle, but I just met him. It wasn’t like I was already in love with him. Tim left my dream and I lay there asleep for a while.

When I woke up, Kyle lay asleep next to me. He’d pulled the blanket up over his head and mine. I tapped his nose. “Kyle?” He didn’t move. “Kyle?” Nothing. I lifted the blanket up to check his clock and it was almost five in the morning. I closed my eyes, trying to drift back off to sleep and his alarm buzzed. He hit it with his hand and opened his eyes and pulled the blanket off of us.

“Ugh…” He rolled out of bed. “You fell asleep last night before I could tell you I start back work today. Do you want me to bring anything home?” I took some money out of my pocket and gave him a twenty dollar bill.

“Can you bring back more of those ice cream sandwiches?” He smiled and nodded. “When are you coming back?” He messed up my hair.

“I’ll be back by sundown. Probably before you wake up. Why? Are you scared to stay here all by yourself,” he teased. I shook my head and pressed my face into his pillow.  
“No, I think I’ll sleep just fine,” I mumbled. I was already tired. I imagined I must’ve slept through half the night, but his bed was so warm, so comfortable. “Are you okay?”

“Uh huh. You look tired.”

“Sun’s coming up. I can’t keep my eyes open,” I whispered. I don’t remember him saying anything else before he left. I just remember hearing the door close.


	8. The Vampire Slayer

I awakened to sunlight on my skin and the sound of a woman. “Kyle you said that you were going to work today-.”

“He went, please close the curtains,” I yelled from under the blankets. She closed the curtains and pulled the sheets off of me.

“And who are you?” She was small in stature, but she had a frightening disposition. I never moved from the bed.

“I’m a friend of Kyle’s. Jason… I’m staying over a few days,” I answered, “Who are you?” She walked over to me and looked me right in the eye.

“I’m Jennie-Lynn. An actual friend of Kyle’s… Vampire,” she hissed. My eyes widened and I grew short of breath. “I was right. I could smell it on your skin.”

“Witch?” She nodded. “I don’t mean him any harm… Honest.” I always feared witches, even as a child. Barbara was the only one that I ever allowed to get close to me. She was a dear friend, someone who -when she visited- treated me like she truly loved me. I imagined she was the only kind witch in the world. I was fond of her, but this witch, this Jennie, made my blood run cold.

“You’re afraid of me aren’t you?” I nodded. “And you are telling the truth about Kyle, aren’t you?” She’d cast a truth spell on me. I nodded. I shook violently. I felt her magic leave me and I stepped out of the opposite side of the bed and backed away. “I won’t hurt you, since you mean Kyle well I have no reason to.” She tried to come around the bed to shake my hand and I shook my head.

“No.” I knew how most witches felt about vampires. I’d heard stories about witches that ripped out the hearts of our kind, eating them, leaving our bodies to be cremated under the sun’s rays. I knew of witches that survived persecution at the hands of both humans and vampires, witches that had excused humans from judgement for their ignorance and short lives; they condemned vampires to death for their manipulation of mortals. Witches were easy to kill if you could get them to trust you, but they killed easily and without discretion if they even sensed an ounce of mistrust. I wouldn’t risk it. I couldn’t. I used to think Tim was the son of a witch, especially when he would cry. They said the tears of a witch would play songs in your soul, put your insides in a twist, and burn your ears. It always tortured me to hear him cry. Maybe it was because I loved him so. All the same, I couldn’t stand to hear his cries.

“I won’t harm you. You said you were a friend of Kyle’s. I’m a friend of Kyle’s too,” she whispered, “Listen… I’ll allow you to feed on me, if you’ll just come here.” She moved her hair for me and I shook my head.

“No.”

“I will not harm you, I swear it,” she whispered, “Kyle doesn’t know I’m a witch and there’s no way that I could harm you without him finding out that I was the one who hurt you.” I nodded and came over to her and fed on her blood. Witches’ blood tasted like tea. I didn’t like tea but it made me feel warm and full inside. I pulled away. “Thank you for breaking away.” I nodded. “You don’t understand why I did that, do you? The blood of a witch is powerful. In the belly of a vampire, it can give him more strength than the blood of twenty mortals… But we’re also bonded. I can’t kill you without harming myself now that my blood runs through your veins.”

“Does Kyle know that you’re a witch?” She shook her head.

“Does he know that you’re a vampire?” I nodded.  
“I just met him the other night… But he-. I revealed myself to him on accident. I’m staying with him awhile to make sure that he’s all right,” I whispered. I was so happy that she removed her truth spell. Kyle’s troubles were not mine to tell. She opened his fridge and put a spell on some of his food. “What are you doing?”

“Making sure none of his food goes bad. His mother died, he hasn’t exactly been on top of things,” she whispered, “I loved him once you know. I loved him dearly, but he was not mine to love, and I was not his. Does that make sense?” I shook my head. “You haven’t loved yet then?” I shook my head. “You will. Soon.”

“How many vampires have you killed?”

“Why would I kill a vampire? I might hate very many of you, the hedonistic beasts, but I love one of them very much.”

“Who?”

“My brother.” She created an illusion of a young man who could become a shadow and I mimicked her illusion. I let my illusion walk into her hand. “Oh! That’s amazing. I might actually grow to like you,” she joked. I smiled. “I’ve interrupted your slumber long enough, I’ll be going now. It was nice to meet you Jason.”

“Likewise Jennie.” She left the apartment and I climbed back into bed and closed my eyes. Once I fell asleep, I was plagued with nightmares that I could not seem to awaken from. I tossed and turned and I could feel my body trying to call me to consciousness but my mind was trapped. I couldn’t tear myself away from the nightmares until she woke me up. Kyle knelt next to me wiping my forehead with a damp cloth and he looked as if he was in a panic. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. “You poisoned me,” I whispered as I turned to Jennie.

“What is he talking about?”

“I didn’t poison him… I didn’t know that he hadn’t fed the night before,” she whispered, “I shouldn’t have let him feed off of me.”

“What,” I asked. She whispered something to Kyle and he fell asleep at my side.

“You’ll live… You’re just in shock,” she whispered, “Feed from Kyle-.”

“I can’t, I didn’t ask him… I shouldn’t,” I whispered.

“Then you’ll sleep until your fever breaks…”

“How long?” I closed my eyes.

“A few days. Less than a week… You didn’t feed much. I can’t hold you here much longer. I’m sorry.” I fell back into my fitful nightmares. One of which was interrupted by Tim.

“Tim? Are you real?” He nodded.

“I brought Dick, I’ve been trying to see you for days…”

“I drank the blood of a witch…” Dick looked upset.

“I should come get you-.”

“No, I like it here.” Dick shook his head.

“It’s dangerous… You’ve never been away from the manor this long. If you want to play with the mortal go ahead and do it already. It’s not worth risking your life-.” I shook my head.

“I don’t want to play with him… I want to be his friend. He knows about what I am. He doesn’t care… Maybe he is a mortal and I’m not, but that doesn’t mean that I should shut myself in. I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to be alone anymore,” I whispered. Dick nodded.

“Okay. Okay… I’ll have Kory bring your clothes once you feel better,” he whispered. He hugged me and I smiled. “Just be careful.” I nodded. I didn't think he'd be so understanding. At least he was trying to be. Tim hugged me and then they were gone.


	9. A Day in the Rain

I awakened after what felt like an eternity of nightmares, with my head on Kyle’s lap and he was reading to me and playing with my hair. “I love this book,” I whispered and sat up.

“I was wondering when you’d finally wake up… I was having a hard time living with what lived with a corpse… It helped that you’re a sleepwalker,” he whispered. I pushed my hair back and looked at him for clarification. “It’s a long story. Just know that you’re very good at hiding. It took me almost an hour to find you, in this apartment of all places it took me an entire hour.” I smiled. “And if you’re wondering what excuse Jennie used to tell me how her blood made you sick, she told me the truth. She’s a witch… And if you’re curious she’s like a whole century older than you are.” 

“I figured she was by the way she could smell my age,” I whispered. Kyle looked at me and smiled. 

“You’ve made my life very interesting… In one week. A whole seven days... You know, Jennie and I used to date and I never once suspected that there was something strange about her. You’ve seen her, she doesn’t even look like she could hurt anybody…” I closed my eyes. 

“I’m scared of her,” I confessed. He nudged me. 

“Jennie? My Jennie? Five-foot-three, short hair Jennie?” I nodded. 

“She thought I wanted to hurt you… She cares about you, a lot,” I whispered. He nodded as if he had to let it sink in that she loved him. She really, honestly loved him. I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to love like that. I could only try to understand it. 

“No… Oh no, she knows I’m gay. That’s why we’re not together anymore. I love her, just not like that… I’m very single,” he explained. 

“Oh no I-. I wasn’t… Unless you were-.” Someone knocked on the door. “Do you wanna get that?” He got up and answered the door. 

“Is Jason here?” Kory. He let her in and I got out of bed but not before she flew into me and knocked me on my back. “How are you feeling? Are you all right?” 

“I’m fine-.” 

“Is this your friend? Hi, I’m Kory…” He shook her hand and she picked him up. 

“Hi, I’m Kyle… You’re very strong.” She smiled and put him down. 

“Oh, I brought Dick, but he was afraid to come up. I brought some of your things from home,” she smiled, “Tim got the address from his dreams.” 

“He what,” Kyle asked, “And who’s Dick?” 

“My brothers, this is his girlfriend and a very good friend of mine,” I whispered, “Tim walks through and controls dreams.” 

“Is she-. Kory, are you a vampire?” She laughed and shook her head. She’d pulled her hair up into a ponytail. 

“No, I’m from outer space,” she answered and then she turned to me and picked me up and held me close to her before taking a breath. “Please be more careful Little Bird and be kind to your new friend… And Kyle please don’t feel like you can’t call. We’d love to get to know you.” She brought in my suitcase. He nodded wordlessly. I think he was a little in shock over the existence of aliens. She left just as quickly as she came and he sat down on the bed with a blank look on his face. 

“She’s six-foot-four, she picked both of us up, and she is from outer space. Your brother is dating an alien. Do they have children? Can vampires and aliens have kids?” I shrugged. 

“I don’t know… I never thought about it, honestly I try not to,” I laughed. He went in the freezer and threw me a box of ice cream sandwiches. “Thanks!” I tore the box open and started eating them one by one while he turned on the television. Kyle set a little table in the kitchen. “What are you doing?” 

“Painting. Wanna come sit?” I nodded and carried the box of ice cream with me to the kitchen. I picked up his sketch pad and looked at him. He nodded and I turned to a drawing of me hanging upside down in his pantry. 

“This is new,” I whispered. 

“That was you sleepwalking. I couldn’t get you down, I just had to wait it out. Once you did come down, you kept saying something, but I couldn’t make it out,” he whispered, “And I was sitting with you when you woke up because you kept screaming and clawing at nothing… You stopped after I started reading to you.” He didn’t look up at me, he just started to paint. “I don’t know if I can ever really know your complete history, but maybe we can get to know each other’s personalities?” I nodded. 

“Can I ask how you and Jennie ended up dating?” 

“I dunno, I was kind of… I don’t know… I was in what I thought of as a good place, I worked with her dad. She came into work one day, and she was pretty. I thought all I needed was to know that she was pretty and that she was a good friend. I mean I always kind of thought that maybe I never liked her like that, but if I didn’t like her that then I’d have to sit and think about the fact that I might not like women at all… I didn’t want to admit it yet,” he looked up at me briefly, “She noticed that I was withdrawn I guess once things started to get physical. I dunno, I guess it just didn’t feel right and so she just asked me and I told her everything. I told her that I didn’t think I was straight, and you know what she did? She asked me if it felt good to finally tell someone, but I couldn’t use the word until that night out on the fire escape with you.” I smiled at him. He looked at me for a while and went back to painting. 

“What?” He didn’t look up at me. 

“Nothing. I was just thinking," he whispered. I ate another ice cream sandwich while I watched him paint. "Are you only staying here because you think I'll hurt myself?" I shook my head. 

"No, I mean a little bit but there's something else. I'm supposed to be here, I think," I answered. He nodded. "It's almost morning." 

"It's raining, it's been overcast for three days. Good weather for a walk," he whispered. I nodded. "I'm inviting you on a walk Jason." I sat up. 

"Oh! Yeah, I'd love to go on a walk," I answered. "I'm gonna go get dressed." He smiled and nodded before I opened my suitcase and took my clothes to the bathroom. I didn’t have a reflection in the mirror, so I didn’t take the time to look for what wasn’t there. I got in the shower and got dressed quickly, opening the door, and Kyle looked at me from across the room as he slipped a hooded jacket over his head. 

“Ready?” I nodded. He grabbed his keys off the kitchen counter and opened his door. I followed him out into the hallway and his hands shook as he locked the door. I didn’t say anything. I pretended that I didn’t notice. We took the stairs and I couldn’t help but think he was being quiet, very quiet. He pulled his hood up before we got outside and his hand brushed clumsily against mine. I took it. 

“I love when it rains in Gotham.” He nodded. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, just a little restless… How do you feel about me? Really?” I didn’t want to answer because I just knew that I wanted to hear how he felt first. He seemed angry with me, like my presence itself was a source of conflict in his mind. I seemed to be a little stuck. My words wouldn’t come together. We hadn’t even gotten all the way out of the building before he kissed me and let go of my hand and I stood there and in the shock of the moment a smile spread across my face. It seemed so out of place, so random, and so perfect. “I’ve never done anything like that.” 

“Nor have I, and I’m two-hundred and eight years old,” I took a deep breath. He pulled my hood over my head and held onto it. “Are you as scared as I am?” He nodded and let out a breathy laugh. He was crying and without even thinking I wiped his tears away with my thumbs, his skin was so soft. I found myself pressing my lips against his, I could feel his blood making his way into his cheeks, and the warmth of his breath in my mouth. I wished he would devour me whole, I couldn’t think straight. I just wanted him to say something. I couldn’t pull away on my own, his lips were so soft, and then I felt the hair on the back of my neck lift up. Witch. I turned around only to see an empty doorway and the feeling left me. Kyle looked at me, wide-eyed, and out of breath. 

“Something wrong?” I shook my head. “You still wanna go on a walk?” I smiled and laughed. 

“Can you,” I joked and he looked down and pressed his forehead into my shoulder, he laughed. I knew we weren’t there yet. I didn’t want to go there yet. “Do you want me to use my powers?” He took a deep breath and nodded before letting out a shaky breath and I dispersed his blood back through his body and he pushed his hand through his hair. “You shouldn’t be dizzy… Are you dizzy?” He shook his head and he grabbed my hand and he led me out into the rain. We walked around Gotham together and he took me to get pizza a few blocks from his house. 

“What does this mean for us,” he asked. 

“I’d like to think that meant something for both of us,” I whispered and he took a bite of his pizza. Once he finished eating he sat and looked at me. “You’re right. It does mean something for both of us,” he smiled. 

After a few hours of walking and talking about our lives, Kyle and I went back to his apartment and after he and I cleaned up, we slept. Kyle must have really spent his nights and days by my side while I was ill. He slept with a heaviness that was reserved for the dead or dying. I awakened to him lying still, his arm thrown across my chest, and his leg entangled with mine. He stirred. "Jason," he asked as if I could somehow escape the hold he had on me in his slumber. "Good afternoon," I whispered and he laughed. 

"Good evening," he mocked me in a movie vampire voice and turned to lay on his back. 

"I'm two-hundred-years-old give me a break," I laughed, "Do you work tomorrow?" He closed his eyes and smiled. 

"Yeah, but it's okay," he whispered. I proposed myself up on my elbow and looked at him. 

"Is tomorrow important for you?" He looked up at my face and smiled. 

"Thanksgiving… I understand if you wanna go be with your family tomorrow night," he pressed a finger to my chest and smiled. 

"We don’t really do holidays because of the whole immortality thing… Don’t you want to take the day off, spend some time with famil-.” 

“It was only me and my mom,” he whispered and he closed his eyes. I knew how hurt he must’ve been, I imagined that’s how I would’ve been if I’d never met Bruce. I touched his arm with my pinky and held my arms open and he threw his arms around me. He wouldn’t let himself cry. He pulled himself together and lay back down. “I should probably sleep through the night tonight.” I nodded. “You’re gorgeous, you know that?” I shook my head. “No, you really are. Maybe it’s the whole vampire thing but you’re pretty.” He reached into his drawer and dry swallowed a sleeping pill. “You’re cute too Kyle, even if you are a smelly mortal,” he mocked me in a fake vampire voice. 

“Hey… I don’t sound like that, and I wouldn’t call you cute. I’d say you were hot, maybe even ravishing if I’m feeling like showing my age,” I joked. He smiled and kissed me. “Goodnight old man,” he whispered. I kissed him on his forehead. He laid down and I let him lay there for a while before he really fell asleep and I called home. 

“Jason?” Bruce. “Are you okay?” 

“Oh, yeah I’m okay. I just wanted to ask if you knew what tomorrow was?” He made an affirmative noise. “Do you think maybe you would wanna come by around six in the morning tomorrow? Bring everybody? Have dinner?” 

“He doesn’t know about your plans to invite us?” 

“No. He doesn’t have any living family, so I thought it’d be nice for him to be around people. Even if we aren’t really human anymore…” I heard Tim’s voice but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. 

“Timothy wants to talk to you,” Bruce whispered. 

“Hi Tim, how would you feel about coming over to meet Kyle and having dinner?” 

“That’d be cool!” Doofus. It was nice to hear the excitement in his voice though. “When?” 

“Tomorrow?” Tim was definitely happy to go. We exchanged a few jokes and hung up and I looked on the bottom of Kyle’s phone for Jennie’s number. 

“Hello?” I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. 

“Would you like to have a thanksgiving here at Kyle’s apartment?” 

“It’s a surprise isn’t it,” she asked. I nodded. I couldn’t explain the feeling but I knew she could see me. “Okay, I’ll come right after he leaves for work.” She hung up without another word.


	10. Alone Together

I didn’t expect my family to use the door, but what I saw made me laugh a little at how truly strange we really were. Kory flew each of them up individually to the fire escape and they all had grocery bags. “Kory, did you have to fly them here,” I laughed. She shrugged.

“No one noticed,” she whispered and Bruce hugged me. It took me off guard but it felt nice to know he wasn’t upset about me leaving without saying goodbye. He let go and looked around. 

“Where did he sleep when you were sick,” Bruce asked. I Kory took Bruce’s grocery bag and started washing vegetables in Kyle’s sink. Dick punched my shoulder and I smiled.

“Dick, listen I-.”

“I know. What's the human look like," he asked. I made an illusion of Kyle and Tim smiled.

"He's handsome," Dick smiled. 

"Thank you," the illusion answered in Kyle's voice. It startled me. They usually sounded garbled like a walkie talkie in a trash compactor. I hesitated a while before getting rid of him. Kory looked back at me with surprise and Tim went to clear the table. 

"Would you like to know how he feels," Dick whispered. I shook my head. 

"I'll wait until he tells me," I whispered, "But that was a test, wasn't it?" He smiled at me and nodded. Someone knocked at the door and Bruce went to answer it and Jennie walked in. Her presence still made me nervous, but she hugged me. She seemed more human this time around. She opened her purse, took out a little dollhouse table and gestured for me to move over a few steps and she placed it on the ground. It grew into a family-sized table, and Tim looked over at her and smiled. 

“How do you do that,” Tim asked. She smiled.

“I’ll tell you later,” she whispered and went over to the table to help him cut vegetables and before I knew it, they’d all started cooking and I set the table. It was nice having them around again. Jennie seemed to take to Tim. Maybe I was right and he was half witch after all, not that it would change anything. There was quite a spread of food, everything from decorative fruit salads to turkey. I wondered how Kyle would fit the leftovers in his fridge. I wondered a lot of things. I wondered if Bruce thought I belonged here, and that was why he’d smiled more than I had ever seen him. I wondered if Dick was just letting me have my way because he knew he couldn’t talk me out of staying. I wondered if Kyle would be happy to have people around so soon after the death of his mother. I wondered quite a lot of things, but by the time I actually started to become nervous about Kyle’s reaction he was already coming in the door.

Kyle looked at me and then at everyone in the room and the spread of food on the table and he was speechless. I was so afraid that he'd be angry with me that I opened my mouth to explain and nothing came out. He threw his arms around me and I hugged back. I could feel my hands shaking with anticipation of what he’d say to me. At least he knew that my intentions were good. “You did this for me,” he whispered. I nodded and he seemed to pull himself together anxiously and with shaking hands he greeted every single member of my family, introducing himself. He gave Jennie a kiss on the cheek and while it would’ve bothered me had it been anyone else, it made me smile because it was her and she deserved it. Bruce smiled at me from across the table when we sat down and everyone made their plates. 

“How did Jason convince you to let him stay after he revealed he was one of us,” Bruce asked. Kyle smiled at the question as if it was not only one week ago. 

“I didn’t really want to be alone, I would’ve given anything just not to be alone and there he was. Sometimes things work out that way,” Kyle answered, “I’m glad it did.” Dick smiled to himself and took a sip of crimson. 

Kyle reached for my glass and I touched his hand and leaned over to him, “It’s not wine. We’re just being discreet.” His eyes widened. 

“Good looking out,” he whispered. Tim was more concerned with the fruit than he was with anything else, and I think it’s because he took so much time to make it look perfect. He was such a goof when it came to things like that, the little details always mattered so much to him. “You made the fruit bowl huh?” Tim nodded. He was so proud of himself. “Name whatever you want and you can have it.” Tim’s eyes widened and his face lit up like it did when we were young.

“A family portrait,” he whispered. Jennie whispered something to him and he turned to her and whispered something back that seemed to amuse her. She pinched his cheek. “That’s adorable,” she smiled and Dick whispered something to Kory and she shook her head.

“Deal,” Kyle smiled. Bruce leaned a little bit and smiled at me. 

“You’re an artist,” Bruce smiled as if he were complimenting Kyle and not asking. Kyle nodded. 

“Yeah, I do comics for the paper. So I had a question, I always thought vampires would lean into the whole look, but I guess realistically it wouldn’t make sense… But you all probably have decades you were fond of, what times were your favorites?” Dick lit up. 

“Jason, you wanna go first,” Dick asked. I nodded.

“I like the nineties so far. I don’t know it’s just a lot more touchy-feely, a lot more brash,” I whispered, “I guess I just like moshing.” Kyle took a sip of white wine and smiled. “I liked the twenties, I haven’t been to a good party since then,” Dick whispered as if he had a specific memory he was calling back to. “Kory and I had a lot of fun back then. Met some very passionate mortals back then.” Kory smiled and laughed.

“I liked the sixties,” Bruce answered and it kind of shocked me. “I doubt she was mortal but it was quite the cat and mouse game back then. It was fun.” Tim looked like he was thinking about it carefully before smiling.

“The eighties. Remember Jason,” he smiled. I nodded. I knew exactly what he was talking about. 

“What happened in the eighties,” Kyle asked.

“We had a lot of fun then, spent almost everyday together,” he smiled and his voice trailed off. I was hoped he didn’t remember how angry and lost I was during that time. Dick noticed how my mind wandered but I don’t think he knew how to address it while Kyle was there. There was something about that decade that brought out a darkness in me. I just wanted those memories to disappear. I wanted to forget what I’d done, the people I’d murdered. I was ashamed of the things I’d done out of anger. I started to feel nauseous.

“Kory, I don’t believe you answered yet?”

“I’d have to agree with Tim. Everything was so big, so bold, so beautiful,” Kory smiled, “But then again, I think this century in itself has been something worth marvelling at.” I poured a little gin into my glass of crimson despite the fact that I hardly ever drank spirits. I took a sip. Something seemed to tighten up around my heart and it agitated me. I didn’t contribute to any further conversations that night, everyone helped clean up after dessert, and Jennie put a spell on the fridge to allow room for all of the leftovers and another on the food to keep it from going bad. Once they were gone, and I’d finished half the bottle of gin, Kyle started to notice that I was acting strangely.

“Is there something that I said,” he asked. I could feel the pain that I felt the night that I should’ve died. I couldn’t make it stop. It seemed to feed on me. I was dizzy, I could hardly stand on my own. “Jason?”

“I drank a little too much. I just… I’m a little drunk,” I whispered. He held onto me and I could see something flash in those pretty green eyes of his and I started to stumble over my words and he helped me over to the bed. I tried to kiss him and he shook his head.

“Not like this… Okay,” he whispered and I grabbed his hand. 

“Are you going to leave? You can-. Dunno if I can,” I started to cry and he crouched by me and wiped my crimson tears away. 

“Oh, Jason,” he whispered in a sweeter voice than I was used to and it only made me cry harder. “It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I dun wanna be alone,” I slurred. He took a tissue and wiped my face and he took my shoes off. “So dark when I’m alone. You’d hate me… If you saw.” He pushed my hair back and he waited until I opened my eyes.

“I’ll stay for as long as you need. I’ll stay right here,” he whispered. I felt his hand leave my face and when I opened my eyes again he lay his arm over me and I could hear him snoring. I moved in bed and he woke up. 

“Jason,” he asked. 

“Hm?”

“I don’t know if you meant it, but I can love you. I’m already attracted to you,” Kyle whispered, “And I really like your family. They’re coming back for Christmas dinner.” I was still so dizzy, so raw. He looped some of my hair behind my ear and he leaned over me to see how I was feeling. “I definitely don’t hate you… And I never want you to feel that way.” He kissed my temple and I bit my lip. I didn’t want to cry again. 

“When did I say that?” He kissed the back of my neck. 

“Before you passed out,” he whispered and I sat up slowly. “Easy… Are you okay? That was concerning.” I shook my head.

“I did some horrible things in the eighties… Things I regret. I knew better, I did, but I was bored and boredom became anger, a thirst for violence. I just wanted people to be afraid of me, but I went too far-.” Kyle sat up and lay his head on my shoulder.

“You killed before? Is that what this is about?” I nodded.

“I didn’t feel anything before, before I met you… Your life it… I want your life to last forever. I wouldn’t want anyone to take it and now that’s given me…”

“Perspective?” I nodded. “Jason, it’s okay. All you can do now is be better. Do you think you can be better?” I nodded.

“I want to be kind. I have to be,” I whispered and he held my hand in his. 

“You already are, no one made you do what you did for me yesterday. You brought your whole family to my apartment to have dinner with me because you thought I’d be sad to spend Thanksgiving -a holiday you’d totally forgotten about- alone. Not to mention you sat on the fire escape with me that night and you really listened to me and then returned just to save my life. Don’t you realize how kind you really are,” he said it with a certain agitation in his voice, an excitement as if he didn’t understand how I couldn’t see what he did. “If anything, you are one of the easiest people to love that I have ever met. You’re still a person underneath all those years.” He kissed my cheek. 

“I can’t see it,” I whispered. He climbed over me and sat on my lap. He pressed his forehead to mine just like the night we first kissed. 

“I do, so I’ll wait until you can see it.” He held me. I wanted him to hold me like that forever. I felt so fragmented, so lost. I just wanted him.


	11. Chapter 11

Kyle kept his promise to Tim with a little help from Jennie who put a photography spell on us. I didn’t understand any of how Tim explained it, all I know is that Kyle could photograph us, and it helped him have reference to draw us and later paint us. In between the times where he worked on the painting and the times that he was at work we spent together, we danced together, listened to music, and sometimes I could feel something between us, something so strong that it seemed to create electricity between us. An electricity so strong that we were both tempted to and afraid of touching one another. Every day this feeling grew stronger and stronger, but one night something happened to Kyle, it drove him home to me. It drove him into my arms and it drove his lips against mine, his hands up my shirt, and I felt it too. He kissed my neck, my cheeks, my lips, and he pulled my shirt over my head. I couldn’t breathe and for a moment I just wanted to taste his lips, his skin. He pushed me back on the bed and I smiled. I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t slept with anyone since the night on the fire escape, and that was over three months ago.

The desire to feel his skin against my fingertips and his breath in my mouth. He took his sweater off and I heard him kick off his shoes. I wanted him more than anything, but he stood there and he laughed. What the hell was he doing? “I’m shaking…” I sat up a little and looked at him. 

“You okay?” He nodded. 

“Can you… Stay right there for just a second?” I nodded. He went into the bathroom and I lay back waiting for him to come back and when he did he threw me a bottle. I knew what it was, and I knew what he wanted from the gesture. I sat at the edge of the bed and I pulled him closer with his hands in mine. “Have you ever… You know?” I smiled and nodded.

“Don’t worry,” I whispered. He let me unzip his pants and I kissed the front of his jeans. He pushed a hand through my hair and I smiled up at him. He let them drop to the floor and he pulled off my pajama pants. I pulled him towards the bed and he lay there next to me. I climbed on top of him and I pushed my body up against his, but it felt like no matter how close my body felt against his as our hips collided, I couldn’t get close enough. I kissed his neck and chest and he let out a noise, a moan. I smiled and I could feel him twitching in his shorts.

“Jason, why’d you stop?” I took a deep breath.

“I wanna get closer,” I whispered. He nodded and I slapped him on the butt to see how he’d react and to tell him to turn over. “Okay,” I whispered and he nodded. “Get comfortable.” He pulled one of our pillows underneath him and I applied a little lube to my finger and I teased him a little. He tensed underneath the immediate cold and I pressed my finger up against his hole. “Relax, okay?” He nodded and I wrapped my other arm around below his waist and stroked him as I pressed up against him with my finger until he relaxed enough to let me in. I prodded around and he made a noise, a low grunt. “That feel right?”

“Again.” I pressed into him and he moaned for me. I applied a little more lube and tried to work another finger in and he loosened up for me just enough to work it in and around and I could feel him twitch in my hand. I stopped and started back like that for about ten or fifteen minutes until I could tell he was getting ready to burst and I removed my fingers, stripped off my shorts, and applied lube to myself. Before he could ask me why I stopped I pressed up against him and he looked back at me. I wanted to look him in the eye, I wanted to see his face. I flipped him over and pressed up against his hole. I wanted him and only him. 

“Relax until I tell you to push okay?” He nodded and I pushed the tip in and he clutched the sheets. “Push for me?” He nodded and pushed back long enough for me to slide in and out and I gave him a thumbs up and he stopped for me. I kissed him and he caught my tongue carefully between his front teeth. I smiled and he let go. I playfully bit at him. He smiled and I pushed all the way in and he grabbed onto me in shock and he let out a laugh. I bit his shoulder but not enough to break skin and I pulled out and pushed in a little faster as I kissed his shoulder and his neck and he was so hot to the touch. I liked how sensitive he was getting under my touch. I didn’t even have to stroke him. He squirmed under my touch, stammering as he tried to say my name, and his hands pulling at my hair only drove me to push farther in, and harder and faster. 

I just wanted to see how long he could hold out when I put the pressure on. I pushed in and he started to say something and he shuddered and released all over the both of us. I kept going until I felt like I couldn’t anymore and I came all over him. He laughed as he struggled to catch his breath and I turned over and lay on my back. He took my hand and I closed my eyes. 

“I’d let you feed on me but I can’t move,” he whispered. I looked over at him, naked, skin flush, and covered in come. I smiled.

“Don’t worry about it,” I whispered. I kissed his temple and after we both lay there a while we took a shower together. His shower was a little cramped but it was nice to be so close to him. After we dried off, I changed the sheets and we went to sleep. He smelled so nice. I couldn’t fight the sleep. I didn’t want to. I just wanted to lay there next to him, I just wanted to sink into the sheets and be in the moment with him forever. I wondered what could have come over him but before I had enough time to sink into my dreams of him I could smell someone in the apartment, someone who did not belong. 

I sat up and locked eyes with a strange man, with a smile on his face. He wasn’t mortal like Kyle. He was like me. I’d spent enough time with Kyle to know the difference. I was nude under the sheet but I couldn’t leave Kyle unprotected. I made an illusion with claws and teeth and wings and it took hold of the intruder throwing the both of them from the window. Kyle sat up in shock and I pulled on a pair of pants and went out to the fire escape. “Stay there.” Kyle nodded and I looked out onto the fire escape. The man climbed up the wall with his nails and I jumped down on his back sending us both down until I made wings for myself. “Leave him alone.” He scratched me and laughed. 

“What does it mean to you? It’s not useful for anything. What have you done since I’ve given you your gift?” The smile on his face frightened me. I wanted to wipe it off his face. “I’m going to eat that human friend of yours… And then I’ll finally get to see that pretty little-.” I drove my forehead into his nose and I don’t remember anything after that, I just remember Kyle wrapping my hand and the burning sensation that came along with it. 

“Jason?” I relaxed and I felt him stand up. "Jason are you in there?" I took a deep breath and I looked at my hand before realizing what I looked like in his eyes. I shed the blood on the outside of my body and I disposed of it in the sink. "Are you okay? The fire department's here. What did you do? What happened?" I held onto Kyle; I couldn't stop shaking. 

"Did he hurt you? Did I?" He shook his head and I think he realized what had happened by that time because his face changed. "Kyle? What did I do?

"You killed it… That thing out there and you set it on fire. It happened just a few minutes ago." I looked out over the fire escape at the pulverized corpse, its body littered with shards of glass or wood, I wasn't quite sure. "Jason went gotta go outside," he yelled. He was yelling? I thought the beeping came from my aching head but it was a fire alarm. "Jason?" I got up and grabbed his sketchbook and his jacket before leading him out of the apartment and into the stairwell leading out of the apartment building. "The keys?" I put his jacket over him and reached into the pocket and gave them to him before going back into the building to get Kyle's scrapbook and on my way back out I ran into Jennie. She hugged me but something was different. She seemed frightened. I carried her out and Kyle ran at me and held the both of us in an embrace before looking at me. 

I took them in the car to the manor and Kory flew out to greet us with Dick in her arms. "What happened? I saw your apartment on the news-.” I felt sick. “Jason you don’t look too good. Do you-.” I nodded.

“Dick, I’m fine,” I whispered and Bruce ran out to see me and took me into the house. 

“What kind of fight were you in?” I shook my head and once he put me down I tried to push past him so he wouldn’t see how ill I was, but I buckled and he caught me. “Jason?” I pressed my forehead against his shoulder. “Who did you fight?” 

“I don’t know!” I took a few shaky breaths. “I don’t know, he h-had claws. He wanted to hurt Kyle… He wanted to hurt me. He said he gave me a gift.” Bruce sat me down and poured me a glass of crimson. I couldn’t drink. I didn’t want to. I just wanted the pain in my head to stop and the pain in my stomach to subside. “I killed him.” Bruce pushed the glass to my lips and I took a sip. I lay back and took a deep breath. “I don’t want anyone to see me sick.” Tim appeared. 

“Jason, what does he look like? The one that attacked you,” Tim asked and I made an illusion of the face and it dissipated on its own. I didn’t have enough strength to hold the image. Bruce pushed me to take another sip of crimson but I just wanted to sleep. Jennie burst in and she bit the wound on my hand and poured something over it. It burned me. 

“What are you doing,” Tim screamed. He seemed angry. I hated to see him angry. It scared me. “What did you do?”

“I had to drive the beast back the best I could, it was killing him,” she yelled back, “Who tried to kill you?” I showed her the illusion of the one who attacked Kyle and I, and it laughed and laughed and laughed and it made something inside me burn with rage. “Jason?” I covered my ears and tried to make it disappear but the laugh persisted. I just wanted it to go away. 

“It was him,” I mumbled. I started feeling unwell again and I threw up. Dick ran in and he looked at me. 

“Who attacked you?” I felt dizzy and I couldn’t hold my rage back any longer. It was like I was separated from my body and what possessed my form in place of my soul, was rage. I could only sit back and listen and watch my body move and talk on my own. I created the illusion without trying to and my body attacked it as if we were still there, fighting outside of Kyle’s apartment and I watched myself tear the smiling creature apart, I watched myself rip the creature apart with my hands and teeth, pounding its flesh until it stopped moving and I made a fire appear, burning myself once again. Dick came up to me. I wanted him to make it stop. I could see in his face whatever I was feeling was completely overwhelming but he tried to touch my shoulder. I tried to scratch him and he grabbed my hands and I struggled violently against him. 

“I can’t calm him down,” Dick whispered. I didn't understand the words that I screamed but I knew they were curses. Kyle came to the doorway. 

“Jay? Dick let go of him.” I could feel my arms drop to the side. “What’s wrong with him?”

“I think it’s not him… I think it was the demon that attacked him, that tried to attack you. I think-.”

“That demon tried to kill Jason,” Tim whispered, “Before… Before he met you.”

“And whatever that demon used to attack him the first time must have possessed him, but only in part-.” Kyle made Dick back away and he hugged me. 

“I can make it go away, you just have to let me. I know I can, I did it before. You can hear me,” he whispered. I felt myself nod and I heard him laugh. “Yeah I knew you could… So you can hear me say what I have to… What I’ve wanted to since that morning in the rain… I love you, you big scary dork.” I smiled and I felt Jennie throw something on me and I could smell something sour as the blood seemed to leave my skin on its own and it evaporated. 

“I wanted to say it first,” I whispered, “I love you.” He laughed and wrapped his arms around me even tighter. I hugged him back and my family (Jennie included) embraced us. Kory shed a few tears for me and she gave me a solemn smile. 

“Kory,” Dick whispered, “You okay?”

“First love is always so sweet,” she whispered.


	12. A Death in the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the sad ending but I wrote an alternative ending so you can skip this one if you'd rather have a happy ending.

I blushed but I couldn’t control it. It was like I wasn’t in control of my blood anymore. Kyle kissed me, but it was different. My hand hadn’t healed yet, my face was warm for the first time in a long time, I couldn’t shake the feeling in my stomach and it hit me as soon as everyone froze at the sound of my stomach growling. Jennie flipped through her spellbook and she looked at me, made a gesture, and she whispered something that neither Kyle nor I could hear, but everyone else did. “Jason, did you hear what I said?” I shook my head. “Kyle?” He shook his head. “The rest of you heard me though?” They nodded and Tim made a face before making himself invisible. Bruce looked away from me but not before I noticed crimson tears rolling down his alabaster cheeks.

“Mortal?” Dick stood me up and he smelled my hair and pinched my cheek. “It doesn’t make any sense. How could you be mortal?” He started to cry crimson tears, but he didn’t realize that I was okay, or maybe he did and he just couldn’t accept it. It didn’t make any sense to me.

“I’m not mortal, what are you-.”

“You would’ve heard what I said if you weren’t,” Jennie whispered, “It’s as if you were never a vampire at all, like the creature or spirit of anger that possessed you was the only thing that allowed you to be like them… Jason I’m sorry.” A smile spread across my face.

“I’m mortal?” She nodded. Kory started sobbing and Dick held her. “Kyle, did you hear that? I’m mortal again… Don’t be upset, that’s great news. I wouldn’t have wanted to outlive Kyle. Dick you said it yourself, no one’s meant to outlive the one that they love most. Even still, we’re probably going to have to stay here a while being that our building is up in flames.” Kyle laughed.

“Hated that place anyways, and we never did get that couch,” he whispered. 

“Tim, come back,” I whispered before creating an illusion entirely on accident and I saw his face reappear. “Whoa… I guess I can still do that.” Kyle laughed. “Tim?” He ran into my arms and nearly knocked me over. 

“If you ever want me to, I’ll turn you both. I mean that,” Tim cried. I held the back of his head and I smiled. Kyle looked at me and he nodded.

“It’s likely we’ll take you up on that offer in a few years… We’ll see,” Kyle whispered. Tim hugged him and I looked up at Bruce. He wouldn’t look at me.

“Come on Dad,” I whispered, “Didn’t you want me back home anyways?” 

“If I had it in my heart I could’ve made you stay… If I knew it would do you any good, I would’ve. I had the power to, but I just couldn’t see the point in you being unhappy… I couldn’t lose you again,” he whispered and I stood up. “I couldn’t lose my son.” I hugged him.

“Nice to know that you care so much. I was starting to worry,” I teased. He shook his head and smiled at me. I kept that picture in my mind for years. 

Kyle and I, as mortals often do stayed behind the walls of the manor, allowing its power to keep us alive and well, but there comes a time where you have to let go of that fear. Kyle and I were eventually able to get married and when we did we knew neither life nor death could keep us from one another, and during the day as our little immortal family slept, we disappeared and moved away. I don’t think they would have let us leave otherwise. After a total of forty years hiding from our mortality, we wanted to see the world as we had never seen it before. We lived another seventy or so years together travelling and meeting people, telling them stories that were true, stories no one would ever believe, and then I fell ill. I never thought for a moment that Kyle would outlive me, but it was a relief to know he couldn’t die faster than me even if he tried to. We went home to the manor, so that I could say my final goodbyes and it was relieving to see that they hadn’t changed. They couldn’t have even if they wanted to. Tim offered to change us, Jennie offered to cure me, Kory even offered to restore my youth with her powers, but Dick knew and Bruce knew and even Kyle knew that I was content. They let me leave the manor and followed me to a hospital where I would tell this story once again to Kyle for the very last time. I created a little box, my last image, to tell my story for as long as anyone would be there to hear it. The last remnants of vampire magic that I had left in me. 

I died knowing that I had known true pain, true rage, true emptiness, but above all I died knowing that the love I had for those who outlived me was completely reciprocal. I knew that they would live on forever and never forget me. That was immortality enough, so I could definitely say, I was pleased to be greeted by Kyle’s darling mother in the afterlife, and soon after I was greeted by her son, my husband. We would be together forever, and sometimes when the wind blew right past the manor, I could swear that they all knew I was still there, just beyond their reach, loving them as they had loved me. 


	13. A New Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the alternate happy ending.

I finished my glass of crimson, trying to regain my strength before standing up. Kyle smiled at me. “Jennie, is it gone for good?” She grabbed my hand and made a fist before kissing it and she nodded.

“Yes, you’ll live, in fact you’ll live forever,” she teased. I smiled. Tim looked me over and playfully punched me in the shoulder. 

"I'm sorry about your apartment," Tim whispered to Kyle and he shrugged. 

"No worries, I can finally get out of my lease now," he joked, "Besides, I'm sure you'll be happy to have your brother back." Tim shook his head. 

"Two. You're family now," Tim whispered. I nodded. Kory took my arm and held my face in her hands before hugging me. 

"Jason, it's so nice to have you home again," she smiled. Bruce sat back on the couch and relaxed. Kyle looked around in a panic.

"What," I asked.

“My photo album, it had all my mom’s pictures-.” I looked around frantically and Dick handed it to him.

“Jason must’ve dropped this,” Dick whispered. Kyle let out a sigh of relief and he hugged Dick and then me. I felt horrible about him losing everything else, but I was glad I could get some of the things that mattered to him. I think he liked living in the manor, I told him about the magic there as best I could, but I don’t think he understood or cared. I finally understood how Bruce felt when we were mortal, I just wanted him to have everything he wanted. I traded in my coffin for an actual bed, and we were free to enjoy one another as long as we pleased, we had an eternity. 

Kyle drew and painted for us for several years, it almost felt like he did so every day. I finally felt like I was free, for the first time in over one-hundred and twenty years to be happy, to love, to be vulnerable. Kyle in the first several years took interest in a project of some sort. It was a secret for quite a while, and it made him so happy. I never bothered to look when he was sleeping, I didn’t want to pry. I figured as long as he was happy I had nothing to worry about. I was right. He woke me up in the middle of the morning and he climbed on top of me asking me if I felt like opening a gift. I nodded and he gave me a box, a heavy box, and I lifted the top and pulled out a book. I could tell Kyle bound the pages himself and made his own cover. “This is for me?” 

“Yeah and it only took like twenty-two years to make so it totally doesn’t matter if you open it or not. It’s not like it means anything,” he joked. I opened it and looked at the sketches and paintings of all the things we had seen and done and all the things I’d told him about. He even kept the photograph of us all together from Christmas. I smiled. It was one of the nicest things he’d ever done for me. “I just wanted to ask for one thing from you… Not in return, but-.”

“Anything. Whatever you want, it’s yours,” I whispered. He smiled.

“I want you to turn me.” I froze for a moment and I looked at him. I felt his forehead, cupped his cheek in my hand, and I looked him in his eyes. 

“You don’t want that. Do you?” He nodded.

“I do, I want to.” I took a deep breath and I got up and made sure that the door was locked and I cut my bare shoulder and pulled him close and he licked my shoulder at first. I could tell it frightened him at first, but once he tasted my blood I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist feeding on me and so he did. He sucked the blood from my shoulder with a hunger that I could only try to remember. It almost aroused me had it not been such a frightening thing. It was so intimate. He didn’t sleep immediately afterward, I figured it was only because he was not on the brink of death as my brothers and I had been when we were turned. He climbed on top of me and we kissed. My wound closed and he collapsed on top of me. Sleep. I pushed him over on his side and off of me, and I pulled the blankets over him. I closed my eyes and I held him close to me. Once it sank in that I could have him forever, I could take him anywhere and love him everywhere, I started crying. Happy tears. I loved him so much. Soon, eternity would begin. Maybe tomorrow, maybe several weeks from now, but what did it matter when forever finally lay at my feet. I could have him forever, and he could have me.


End file.
